“And you’d be willing to do that?” he asks, there’s an edge to his voice that I’ve not heard before, it’s deeper. “You’d be okay being in a secret relationship?”
“Yeah, if it needed to be, and, you know, it was the right person.”
He doesn’t reply, simply nodding his head for a moment, but I can tell the conversation is over.
“I’m going to go and use the showers, they should be quieter now,” I say, standing and gathering my things.
“Sure,” he says, “I’m gonna get an early night, I’m exhausted after practice.”
“Okay, night.”
“Night, Donovan.”
Chapter 6
Stephen
Anotherweekhaspassedand even though I’m busier than ever with school and training, my mind is consumed with Donovan during any spare moment I have. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a crush like this, and it’s dangerous. In a way, it’s lucky I’m so busy as it gives me less time to consider acting on my thoughts.
Even questioning him about being in a secret relationship was a step too far. Besides the fact that it would be wrong to ask that of him, I don’t have time for a relationship right now, even a secret one.
But have I been sneaking glances when he changes his shirt before bed… yes. Does it drive me crazy when he bites his lip while concentrating on a book he’s reading… fuck yes it does. Have I thought about him every time I’ve found a private moment to jerk off this week… maybe… okay, yes.
And I know he likes me too, and I’m not saying that in a conceited way. Whenever I take my shirt off he can’t get a word out, I might have been changing my shirt a lot this week. I’ve seen him watching me at other times too. But what Donovan needs right now more than anything else is a friend.He’s only just come out, and he had that horrible experience with Kyle, which still fills me with rage when I think about it.
Yes, he needs a friend, and that’s what I need to be for him, no more flirting, no more excessive shirt removing, no sneaking glances… friends. In fact, I need to help him make more friends, and I’ve got just the way to do it.
I swivel in my chair to face him. As usual, he’s choosing to read while lying on his bed instead of at his desk, it’s really not helpful to have him constantly tempting me.
“Do you want to go to a club tonight?” I ask.
“What?” he asks, looking up from his book.
“My friends, non-football friends, the ones I mentioned, Jamie and Max, they go to a club on Sunday nights. I’m usually too busy to go, but I could use a distraction tonight.”
“Oh, yeah, that sounds fun.”
“Okay, I think they usually head there for nine, so if we leave here at eight-thirty?”
“Sounds great,” he says, turning back to his book and biting his lip again.
Friends… he needs me to be a friend.
It’s a nice night so we decide to walk to Prism. The club doesn’t have a strict dress code, but you need to be smart, so we’re both in jeans and button-up shirts, mine black and Donovan’s white. Fuck he looks good, the shirt emphasizing his light brown skin and clinging to him in all the right places. I’ve always had a thing for guys who are smaller than me, which isn’t hard when you’re my height and size, but fuck, Donovan is perfect.
“How long have you knownMax and Jamie?” he asks.
I shake myself out of my wandering thoughts to answer him. “Since high school, but we only really grew close once we got to Winbrook. You’ll like them, they’re great, and they make a cute couple.”
“Oh, they’re together, I assumed they were friends?”
“They were, for a long time, it was a whole ‘friends-to-lovers’ thing,” I chuckle. “They kept dating and hooking up with other people, but in the end they realized the person they liked spending time with the most was each other.”
“I love that,” Donovan says, “I like the idea of getting to know someone before starting a relationship.”
“Yeah, me too,” I say, my voice soft.
I try not to let my brain focus on the fact that we have that potential, we’re slowly getting to know each other, and there’s clearly an attraction here.
